Month 1 Update Part TWO

I am learning so much! I could go all day just in what I read in my morning devotions, and classes have so much information packed into them, not to mention the book we’re reading as well! I keep a journal and notebook for different things, and write in my book, so that I can keep everything I’m thinking and praying about straight. I don’t usually like to admit when I do things wrong, so talking to people about what God is telling me, or what I’m convicted about, is still somewhat of a struggle. As I evaluate the classes and separate the “meat from the bones,” I learn a lot about myself and what I think about topics that I haven’t really talked about or studied before. God has shown me places where I need to work on some character issues, forgive someone, work on a relationship, or just listen better. This week’s struggle has been self-value and self-confidence problems. I’m not sure how to explain it exactly, but God has already pointed out several places where I need to work on why I’m doing something – is it because I believe it would be beneficial for me? Or is it simply to please someone else? One of the teachers said something that has stuck with me: “If you don’t take care of yourself first, you can’t take care of anyone else.”
Getting sick while you are in another country is such a bummer. I started getting headaches and feeling nauseous during the second week I was here; by the middle of the 3rd week, I was getting stomachaches after every meal and really dragging. I wasn’t sleeping well, and I had an almost constant headache. I stopped drinking the milk, thinking that because it was from a powder, my stomach didn’t like it. Next I tried eating less, then not drinking the coffee, and then I finally went to the doctor in town and got some medicine that has really helped – I’ve gone 3 days without a stomachache! Unfortunately, I had to stop drinking Coke as well, but it’s worth it. There’s something about stomach bugs and caffeine that just don’t get along. There are now other people getting sick; two of the girls can hardly eat anything because of the type of parasite that they have. There are other people with sore throats and bad headaches that have developed within the last two days. We’re on a search to figure out what’s going on, all the while praying against the spirit of sickness. God is doing some amazing things in the lives of different people here, and it’s obviously the Devil doesn’t like it (I don’t have the privilege right now to share, but hopefully I will as time goes on!).